Thursday, July 17, 2008

Between the lower boundary of the ionosphere of the sky and the ground plane of the Earth exists a cavity that is continually energized by 40 million lightning strikes a day. This energy makes the cavity resonate and creates an electromagnetic (EM) standing wave that bounces between the sky and Earth. It travels at the speed of light, as do all EM waves, and circumnavigates the entire planet about 7.86 times per second. It is called the Schumann Resonance (SR) and studies show that it likely plays a critical role in psi activity.

The frequency range of the SR is between 1-40 Hz with a dominant frequency of 7.8 Hz which falls in the Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) range of the EM spectrum used for radio waves. It travels in a west to east direction and is longer at night than during the day. This is due to the rotation of the Earth and the sun’s rays compressing the ionosphere on the daylight side of the planet. It is primarily energized by lightning but the North American power grid energizes it as well because the ninth overtone of the dominant wave frequency (7.8 Hz) is 60 Hz, which is the operating frequency of the grid. (Most of the rest of the world’s power grids run at 50 Hz.) The SR is named for the physicist who first mathematically predicted its existence in 1952, Winfried Otto Schumann, although Nikola Tesla was the first to document his observations of it in 1902. Tesla was also the first to suggest the possibility of wireless radio communication.

The SR acts as a carrier wave for the sound of lightning activity all over the globe and this can be heard with a radio receiver tuned to the ELF range. Because the SR’s dominant frequency of 7.8 Hz is also in the middle of the alpha-theta range of brainwave activity, it has been studied as a carrier wave of psychic and healing abilities. In 1969, Robert C. Beck researched the brain activity of healers. They all entrained to the Schumann Resonance in both phase and frequency.

Professor Michael Persinger of the Psychophysiology Laboratory at Laurentian University noted that ELF waves propagate more easily from midnight to 4:00 a.m. and that they are easier to transmit from west to east rather than east to west. Persinger surveyed the ESP literature for any correlation and found that there was a direct correspondence in time and direction in both telepathic and clairvoyant episodes with the SR. Persinger also observed that the same geomagnetic disturbances and magnetic storms that affect global communication also disrupt the SR and psi experiences.

Although there are several accurate mathematical descriptions about how lightning behaves and a few theories about how it originates, to date no one is positively sure how it is generated. What we do know is that lightning makes amino acids, which is thought to be a critically important ingredient in causing life to arise from the primordial soup. Lightning also splits apart molecules in the air and by doing so makes nitrogen available to plants.

Most folks think one lightning bolt is pretty much the same as another. Amazingly though, new forms of lightning have been discovered in just the last few decades. While 75% of all bolts fire within clouds, most of those that strike toward the Earth are considered negative bolts. They are less than an inch wide and burn at about 50,000 degrees, which is hotter than the sun’s surface. Recently, it has been confirmed that some lightning bolts work in reverse and lower a positive charge to the ground. Unlike negative bolts, which burn for 10 milliseconds, positive bolts burn for hundreds of milliseconds with 10 times more amps. This has required NASA to develop new safety requirements for aircraft and space shuttles.

Another new form of lightning that is a concern for space flight is sprites, which is an acronym for Stratospheric/Mesospheric Perturbations Resulting from Intense Thunderstorm Electrification. Their official classification is as Transient Luminous Events or TLE’s. These new bolts are plumes of EM energy rising anywhere from 15,000 feet above the clouds to 50 miles high and 25 miles wide. They were predicted as early as 1925 by Scottish physicist C.T.R. Wilson, but weren’t documented until 1993 by Walt Lyons at the Yucca Ridge Field Station in Colorado.

Soon afterward, blue plumes called jets were found. They shot out into space. Later discoveries have been named elves, which is an acronym for Emissions of Light and VLF perturbations from EMP events. They are the most powerful bolts of all and can shoot anywhere from 10 to 50 miles up into space all the way through the ionosphere.

Since lightning plays a direct role in creating amino acids and, therefore life, and since humans are so attuned to the Schumann Resonance, it will be interesting to see what discoveries lay ahead in the investigation of these new types of lightning and how they affect life on Earth. It will be especially interesting to see how it may affect those who practice the intuitive arts.

Friday, July 11, 2008

One of the most famous experiments in physics is a simple yet profound example of the dual nature of light. It is called the “two-slit experiment.” It was first conducted by English polymath, Thomas Yong around 1800 and validated the wave theory of light, overturning Newton’s corpuscular ideas. Neils Bohr used it to develop the Principle of Complementarity showing that light was both a particle and a wave and no description of light was complete without referencing both. It was also at the heart of Einstein’s famous thought experiment called the EPR Paradox, designed to show the incompleteness of quantum theory. One of the most intriguing aspects of the experiment is that you find exactly what you expect to find. It validates light as both a particle and a wave. How can this be? Well, that is the very question physicists have been trying to answer for over 200 years.

The experiment is very simple. A steady laser beam of light is aimed at a target. Two devices with slits which can be individually opened or closed are placed side by side in the path of the light beam. When only one slit is open, all of the light travels through it and hits a target on the other side of the slit in a bullet fashion. This demonstrates the particle nature of light. When both slits are open, the pattern on the target looks exactly like waves which are interfering with one another. The most puzzling thing is that these same patterns emerge when the light is sent in a steady stream or when one photon is released at a time.

There are two main conclusions which physicists have drawn from this experiment. The first is that you find what you are seeking. If you set up the experiment with one slit to detect particles, that’s what is produced on the target. If you set up the experiment to detect waves, that will be the pattern produced regardless if it is a steady stream of light or one photon at a time.

As physicists attempted to come to grips with these results, some exotic theories arose. Some called into play the hidden variables found in entanglement experiments. Others suggested that each particle somehow “knows” beforehand which path to take so that it mysteriously cooperated with all of the other particles yet to be fired. Einstein even suggested a pilot wave ahead of the particle that served to guide it.

Physicist David Bohm developed a most intriguing theory. He described the two-slit experiment as photons dancing to a musical score. The score came from what he called the Seamless Whole which acted as a pool of information. This Whole included the physicist, the laser, the photons within the laser beam, the slits and the target, or measuring device. After the experiment was set up by the physicist, all elements of it became known to the Whole. For example, the conditions under which the experiment would be conducted was one element in the overall pool of information in the entire system. If the experiment were set up with one slit open to detect particles, that condition became a “known” element in the entire system. The photons then, simply went along with that information. In other words, they danced to that music. When the experimental conditions were changed, i.e., when the music changed, the photons simply did another dance in accordance. The photons didn’t have to have prior knowledge of anything nor was an observer necessary.

Prior to the introduction of Bohm’s theory, all of quantum physics had been absorbed in determining the state of a system in the present and the prediction of how that system would be in the future. This description was muddled in murky probabilities. Bohm’s theory described the genuine motion of particles over time, not just the probability of where any one would be at any one time. This solidified the idea that the universe must be seen as a whole system and that anything which can be said of its individual elements at any one instance is only a partial description at best. Bohm’s theories eventually came to be referred to as Bohmian Mechanics.

One of the interesting features of the two-slit experiment is that it allows a thing to be realized in two different ways. But, our daily experience would lead us to believe the words of Gertrude Stein in that “A rose, is a rose, is a rose.” We can accumulate different sensations of it by looking at it, smelling it and even touching it, but alas, it remains a rose. But, the two-slit experiment demonstrates a thing becoming a wave. That’s like a door knob turning into a sound depending on how you observe it. The entire concept is mind-boggling. Of such things, Heisenberg said, “What we learn about is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our methods of questioning.” Perhaps someday we will have a broader concept of nature that will give the two-slit experiment a fitting context so that we can better understand the question we are asking of it.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Since ancient times, many people have theorized why things fell toward the Earth. The ancient Greeks, Newton and Einstein have all dramatically expanded our understanding. Even today, it is still a subject of debate as new experiments may shed light on a topic that is as old as the universe itself. Gravity is usually described as an attractive force. But, that force is actually a by-product of the power in a curved line.

Ancient geometers were aware of curved line effects but, the significance of this concept wasn’t attached to gravity until the time of Einstein. The writings of Aristotle stated that all things fell to Earth because everything was made of earthly substances and they were attracted to their natural home. Galileo substantiated this claim by stating that the center point of a pendulum’s swing always pointed toward the Earth, which provided its source of attraction.

Newton also subscribed to this view of attraction, but he expanded it in significant ways. He is credited with giving the affects of gravity a mathematical foundation and directly associating gravity with the mass of an object. For example, an apple has mass. So does the Earth. Since the planet is bigger than the apple, it has more mass and thus, more attraction or gravity. So, an apple falls toward the ground because the Earth’s attractive force is the larger. He applied this idea on a cosmological scale to account for why the planets in our solar system orbited the sun and why moons orbited planets. Because of Newton’s combined knowledge in ancient geometry, alchemy and the use of Calculus to determine acceleration along a curved line, it is amazing that he did not relate this concept to gravity. But, eventually, someone did.

Einstein’s first paper was found to be a special case over a limited range of circumstances, hence its common name of Special Relativity. It did not take into account the affects of gravity. He then developed a more general theory which did. It took him a decade to complete and it revolutionized the model we use to understand what gravity is and how it works.

Einstein stated that mass was not necessarily attractive, it simply bent or curved the space around it and that curve provided the means to move one body toward another. In Special Relativity he showed that spacetime is actually a fabric. In General Relativity he showed how it is bent or deformed by mass.

An easy way to imagine this process is to picture a bowling ball, which represents a planet, at the center of a trampoline, which represents the fabric of spacetime. Since the ball has mass, or weight, it curves the surface of the trampoline a great deal near the center and only a little at the edge. If we set a golf ball near the edge, it has very little mass, so it doesn’t bend the surface very much. If we give the golf ball a little push around the edge, it will circle in a spiral that draws ever closer to the bowling ball.

Here’s the key point Einstein made. The golf ball is merely following a path determined by the curve of the trampoline. The bowling ball is not actively exerting an attractive force. As the golf ball nears the center, the curve is greater hence, the force is greater and it “falls” even faster toward the bowling ball. Einstein showed that the acceleration that one massive object “feels” when it approaches another is what constitutes gravity. In other words, acceleration and gravity are the same phenomenon. Gravity then, is an effect or by-product of the bending of space.

It is unfortunate that most dictionaries and text books still describe gravity as an attractive force, which is often misunderstood to be akin to other types of attractive forces such as magnetism. This concept is misleading in that it attributes the force to the massive body, not to the curve.

There are several reasons to update this notion of attraction. You are not kept on the face of the Earth because it is pulling you down. You stay in place because space is pushing down on you. The moon has less mass than the Earth therefore it curves the space around it less. So, you weigh less on the moon simply because space is pushing on you less there. Einstein’s model also shows how everything in the universe is connected to, and affected by, everything else in the universe.

There is no way to over-emphasize the importance of understanding the nature of gravity to our future knowledge of how the universe came to be, what it is, and how everything in it works. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four known forces. This disparity is the monkey wrench thatkeeps physicists from being able to generate a Grand Unified Theory. It is hoped that experiments at the new Large Hadron Collider will help identify why the forces aren’t equal and whether gravity could be leaking out of our universe into others, as suggested by Lisa Randall, Professor of theoretical physics at Harvard University.

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